If you, like me, love LMDE but prefer the KDE desktop environmont, you could simply apt-get install kde-standard.But then you're left with a bloated system...MATE, Cinnamon and everything else you don't need is still there.So, I started with KDE on a Debian Install and tried to Mintify that.

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1. Download and install Debian Squeeze and install KDEYou have several options here:

kde already has konversation and ktorrent, the avahi stuff is useless cruftin place of simple-scan I use ksaneplugin - KScan plugin for scanning through libksanefor samba, just install smb4k printer-applet isnt needed

Its all about personal choice.either wicd or network-managerFor multimedia I would also add kid3 and soundkonverter.,k9copy

I like kde but I have no use for neopumk/strigi, or akonadi so I disable them all. makes it so kde will run on my ancient laptop.

note: i only recommend the use of this preferences file with the default latest repo setup

2- there's a general issue with this howto:- you start with a wheezy netinstall and later point the sources.list to packages.linuxmint/latest;- the wheezy netinstall will give you a full updated system; latest is frozen as from march/20th; there's a possibility that you gonna see later on some lib mismatches (that will be solved with UP5)

Schoelje wrote:I'm in a steep learning curve here...Could you explain what the preferences file is used for?Would you recommend using the sqeeze netinstall instead?

I'm not zerozero (no one could pretend to be ) but I've done this type of thing many tmes. In fact, most of my installs are built from the ground up.

The preferences file is used to give weight to Mint's packages if they are replacing the same files in Debian's repository. Mint's version might be a bit older but because of the weighting in the preferences file the Mint version will be installed instead of the Debian version.

That works well in the Mint UP/repo scenario but I've found that if you're tracking Debian repos the preferences file can get you into dependency problems. I eliminate it when switching to direct Debian repo tracking.

I suggest starting with a squeeze install since even the oldest Mi repos will be newer than squeeze. Also, you might as well start with the squeeze LiveCD since you'll be upgrading all the packages anyway when switching to Debian testing or Mint repos. This avoids having to download the initial squeeze install. They offer an ISO called the "standard" install which installs just a command line environment, from which you can add your choice of DE and apps. Makes for a very clean install.

@squeezyThanks for your input.I'm running the standard install right now and I'll try your suggestions.I saw that, together with the standard install, you can download a Debian KDE install.Granted, it's 1G instead of 235MB, but apt-get kde-standard needs to download about 1G as well.Is there some difference?

Schoelje wrote:I saw that, together with the standard install, you can download a Debian KDE install.Granted, it's 1G instead of 235MB, but apt-get kde-standard needs to download about 1G as well.Is there some difference?

It's been a long time since I installed a full Debian system, and have never done KDE. I don't recall all the things Debian includes in their full DE installs. I'm of a very minimalist mindset. My computer is pretty old and is a desktop with only an ethernet line so I don't like to have wireless, bluetooth, modem managers, network managers, et al installed. That's why I build my own systems from a command line base.

First of all, I'd like to thank everybody for your input.It's nice to see that there are more people interested in LMDE with KDE (I hope Clem is reading this as well).

I'd like to keep the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) in mind with this tutorial, so that people without expert skills can follow it. Obviously, you need to know where to find the konsole

This said, I adapted the tutorial according to your input.Can you verify that all is correct?

There are still some minor issues left:1. debian-handbook and ktorrent are not in the LMDE latest (any reason for that?) and is installed through the Debian Squeeze repositories.2. I still didn't figure out how to change the gtk theme for all users.3. Nor did I find out how to change the Kickoff Application Launcher icon for all users.4. I removed mintwelcome: it would disappear when you click it and had to kill the process.5. I changed the symlink /usr/share/wallpapers/kde-default.png to point to /usr/share/backgrounds/linuxmint-debian/gelsan_debian.png, but that doesn't do a thing.

You are doing this the hard way I took a LMDE 201204 Xfce install, added kde-standard, everything worked when I logged into the kde desktop except tap on my touchpad, so I added kde-config-touchpad and it works fine now. Took me very little time and I have a nice KDE LMDE http://s1250.photobucket.com/albums/hh5 ... 4831PM.pngkbd47PS--I also have a nice Xfce4 Mint desktop to log into. One thing to note is that installing kde-standard on LMDE Xfce will remove mate-notifier, you will need to install xfce4-notifyd if you still want notifications for the Xfce install.

well, it's better than banshee, no doubt about it (at least we are safe from the mono-disease) but in a kde-desktop makes no sense (i think): amarok, clementine, tomahawk are players integrated in the ecosystem (as rhythmbox is within gnome) that's all, as for the rest, surely it will work. it's your option (like others have the option to run native app)

@kbd47At first I did what you did but was not at all satisfied with the result: I just wanted to know if I could make a pure LMDE install with KDE only. I suppose it was just curiosity that made me spend days to solve the puzzle. Eventually, I wanted it to look exactly like Linux Mint, so with the plasma panel looking exactly like Linux Mint KDE for each new user you create, etc.

Your way is certainly a valid solution if you want to use the KDE desktop and don't want to spend as much time on it as I did (well, just following the tutorial will not take that long).

If anybody could point me to a tutorial/manual on how to make a live install DVD for this solution, I'd be a very happy camper.

zerozero wrote:well, it's better than banshee, no doubt about it (at least we are safe from the mono-disease) but in a kde-desktop makes no sense (i think): amarok, clementine, tomahawk are players integrated in the ecosystem (as rhythmbox is within gnome) that's all, as for the rest, surely it will work. it's your option (like others have the option to run native app)

I'm not too "religious" on the subject, if k3b works well for me in Gnome, I use it, same with whatever app works best for me in KDE

Schoelje wrote:@kbd47At first I did what you did but was not at all satisfied with the result: I just wanted to know if I could make a pure LMDE install with KDE only. I suppose it was just curiosity that made me spend days to solve the puzzle. Eventually, I wanted it to look exactly like Linux Mint, so with the plasma panel looking exactly like Linux Mint KDE for each new user you create, etc.

Your way is certainly a valid solution if you want to use the KDE desktop and don't want to spend as much time on it as I did (well, just following the tutorial will not take that long).

If anybody could point me to a tutorial/manual on how to make a live install DVD for this solution, I'd be a very happy camper.

I wonder if you could use remastersys or something to copy your setup? I know there are many people who want a Mintified KDE LMDE. Don't know if it could become official or not, but I think there is much interest in it.